Hair
by PhaerynTao
Summary: Finn and Piper bond on an off day. Oneshot, and amusingly corny.


a/n: If anyone's read my other writing, they'll probably wonder 'just what the hell is she doing'?

I dont write much fluff, hence the strangeness of this fic. But I cant help but appreciate that I can, in fact, write cheesily.

I dont know whether to call this romance or friendship. I guess I'll leave it up to the readers.

Disclaimer: I dont own jack squat. Enjoy.

* * *

Piper loved her job. She did, she knew it, and she would never deny it. The sharpness of her crystals in her palm made her feel alive, as did the wind in her hair when she treated herself to a ride on her heliscooter. It was more than fair that she was given the opportunity to work with these people; these fine people who now called themselves the Storm Hawks, much to many's disapproval. They were nothing but kids in the eyes of nearly everyone who didn't know what they were talking about. It wasn't a huge loss, those people and their ill-placed beliefs. They had never seen the teens in battle. 

She smiled, she laughed. She fought fiercely; the thought of backing down did not even seem to be in her system. Piper consistently busied herself with her hobbies; the mechanics of her plans, the mechanics of her crystals. Never slowing down, never straying away from whatever path she had recently taken.

Instead, today she woke up and looked at herself in the mirror. _Really _looked at herself. Every muted curve of her form, the thick copious fashion of her azure hair, the intensity of her amber flooded eyes, and how they could depict anything from the purity of gentleness to unsheathed rage. Skin like russet milk that has just a little too much chocolate syrup in it. She was a very pretty person, although it wasn't something that she was reminded of often.

Piper found herself wandering along The Condor in an aimless manner, seeming upbeat and occupied whenever anyone of her squadron walked by. Even she found it tedious after a while, and decided to settle down in the kitchen with a small cup of nearly flavorless tea. Clouds brewed like tasteful dark stew she could see out the window, a drop of moisture falling onto the thickly engineered glass.

The cup touched her lips every minute and a half or so, the liquid soaking her tongue and making her taste buds rise. She wasn't sure what was wrong with her today. For some inexplicable reason she didn't feel inclined to do anything that she normally would. Except for the constant creaking of various types of machinery on board, she heard nothing. Not even the footsteps sneaking up behind her reached her usually keen hearing.

"Guess who," Said an annoyingly mischievous voice as the palms of two calloused hands reached around and covered her eyes.

An ordinary reaction of hers would be wrenching the hands away and practically spitting in his face 'Finn, there are only six members on this ship and none of them have a voice as irritating as yours'. But she said nothing, and merely chuckled quietly as she delicately brushed his hands away.

"Hey," she said simply, setting down her cup and watching Finn swing energetically around to the other side of the table.

"Surprised to see you out of your room for once. Did you finally get tired of being a hermit by day?"

Smiling sadly, Piper just shrugged, and gulped down the rest of her drink and pushed the cup out of her way. Finn quirked an eyebrow.

"So aside from you emerging from your cave, what's up?" He asked, the question hinting concern that she always believed he severely lacked.

Licking her lips thoughtfully, Piper considered telling him her minor woes. Then again, Finn wasn't exactly the type that she would actively seek out to confide in. In fact he normally annoyed the living daylights out of her, and half the times she spoke to him it was either telling him to knock it off or grow up. Any logical train of thought would've just told him to bugger off, but the more she speculated the more she realized that she was not going to treat this as she typically would.

"It's weird. I don't quite know." She replied.

"Weird? I'm good at weird..." He said, his voice carrying easily through the room as it always did.

Piper shrugged again, once again displaying her current inability to do much else. Part of her got a faint sense of satisfaction at the fact that Finn honestly didn't know how to react to her dreary demeanor. His large blue eyes were sparkling with something that resembled worry.

"Are you…okay?" He asked, his apprehension now evident.

"Finn…have you ever felt that you're going so unbelievably fast in life that you don't get a chance to enjoy it?"

Finn jutted out his bottom lip and looked upward, searching his blissfully vacant mind for the answer to her question.

"Nope, can't say that I have." He answered with a small perky smile.

Piper stared at her team member, and felt a smile sliding onto her two dark lips. In all the time she had spent with him, she never saw him this way. He was so jovial all the time, it was almost uncanny how he could make anything listless and dull into something incredibly amusing or fun. She had never really realized what a gift he had.

"What about you?" Finn asked suddenly.

"Well yeah." She replied frankly. "I work and I plan and I build, and…I guess it just never occurred to me until now that…" she trailed off.

"That…?" He pushed.

"That I am a really, _really _dull person." Piper finished, laughing dismally.

"But that's okay," she continued, before Finn could open his big mouth to battle her downgrading words. "Because I have people like you and everyone else in the squadron to keep my fire burning."

"Haha, well that's good. No one can resist ol' Finn's charms, Piper. Not even you."

Piper snorted playfully, "But of course! I worship the ground you walk on, Finn!"

They both laughed heartily, trailing off after a few seconds before Finn abruptly snapped his fingers.

"Hey, I got it. How about I give you that hairdo that I offered you after that whole Lark/Cyclonis incident!"

Piper stared at him, smiling in disbelief that he even remembered that. "Are you kidding me? That was forever ago, and besides! I'm scared of what kind of creation you'd make out of my hair."

"Aw c'mon," Finn said, rising out of his chair and standing behind hers. "What harm could it do?"

"Well…" She said, sounding uncertain. "I guess you could…just be gentle, okay?"

"Gentle's my middle name." He said, comically confident. "I've wanted to run my hands through this blue mane for a while."

Piper felt heat vibrating through her face as she felt his hands pulling back her hair and fingertips running along her dark scalp. Although she was slightly curious (and uneasy) about what he was like as a hair stylist, but she had to admit, he was being extremely tender with her thick strands.

"Jeez, Piper. How can you stand to have all of this on top of your head?" Finn said, running his fingers through the bulk of the midnight blue like a comb.

"I manage…" She said quietly, her eyes half open. She forgot how good it felt to have her scalp touched, and was surprised that the blonde sniper was the cause of all the nerve endings in her head vibrating with gratification.

"Alright, here you go!" Finn said excitedly, twirling her rotatable chair towards the mirror that was behind the kitchen sink.

"Goodness I can hardly contain myse-"

What would've ended up as a sarcastic comment was cut off by the view of her reflection. Finn had parted her gravity defying hair two inches from the center, and had managed to get it to lie downward, something it hadn't done in years. Piper never minded her hair, never minded that it always stuck up in an almost tomboyish look. She figured that Finn would make her look like an escaped mental patient, but in fact he did quite the opposite. The style was feminine, flattering even.

"What d'you think, pretty good right?" Finn said, brushing off his shoulder as if he was the smoothest thing in the world.

"My god, Finn. I look so different. Hell, it looks great!"

"Well duh, would it be anything less?" He said, grinning widely.

Piper laughed, eyes slowly going from her reflection to her ample hair stylist. She stood suddenly and playfully shoved Finn into the chair earning a surprised yelp from the blue eyed sharpshooter.

"Alright blondie, now it's my turn."

fin.


End file.
